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Overview and Learning Objectives

Students learn that temperature measures average kinetic energy, and heat is the transfer of energy from hot systems to cold systems. They consider what makes a good conductor.

Students will be able to:

• Distinguish between heat and temperature at the atomic level.

• Determine temperature is related to both the speed and the mass of atoms.

• Explain that temperature is a measure of the average kinetic energy of atoms and molecules in a system.

• Experiment with the amount of energy and the size of a system and its relationship to a rise in temperature.

Central Concepts

Additional Related Concepts

Benchmarks and Standards

AAAS

THE PHYSICAL SETTING: ENERGY TRANSFORMATIONS - Heat energy in a material consists of the disordered motions of its atoms or molecules (Full Text of Standard)

THE PHYSICAL SETTING: ENERGY TRANSFORMATIONS - Transformations of energy usually produce some energy in the form of heat, which spreads around by radiation or conduction into cooler places (Full Text of Standard)